'Console Wars' is nothing more than clever marketing and misleading media hype

Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4 last week and kicked off the next round of the so-called ‘Console Wars’. Much of the mainstream consumer media has been quick to compare it to the unannounced Microsoft Xbox 360 successor and the Nintendo Wii U as the ‘next big thing’, however they’re failing to look past the hype, see the bigger picture and educate consumers.

The developments in gaming since the last round of consoles mean that a new wave of devices that just run games and connect to the Internet won’t cut it. Because of this Sony has had no choice but to design the PlayStation 4 as essentially a closed PC that you can’t upgrade. This means that no matter how shiny and fast it is when released, nothing can prevent the PS4 becoming out of date in a couple of years.

Valve Software’s upcoming Steam Box is one example of a living room PC-based gaming device that you can upgrade, and is the real sign of things to come. Technology advances mean that you’ll no longer need a huge, expensive PC to stay within the cutting-edge of gaming, and manufacturers will no doubt make it easier and easier for even the most technologically illiterate consumer to upgrade their gaming machines.

Unless the next Xbox console is properly upgradable, which is very unlikely, the ‘Console Wars’ between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are an irrelevance designed purely to generate marketing buzz around products that don’t deserve the attention. It is the journalist’s job to see past the flashy product launches and big-budget marketing stunts and inform consumers that the gaming console in the traditional sense is an archaic concept.

Of course, it’s not just gaming consoles that are kept alive and kicking by clever marketing strategies. Some parts of the TV (Sky, anyone?) and music industry (the ‘big four’ labels) are clinging on when they shouldn't be thanks to great marketing campaigns that really maximise on their dwindling relevance.

Bewildered UK media are way behind the times with Pirate Bay ruling

In their coverage of the Pirate Bay story on Monday, the Metro included this sentence in isolation: “The music industry currently loses billions every year as a result of music piracy.” It is this kind of misinformed, lazy journalism that keeps the majority of consumers in the dark about copyright and piracy. Like the greedy copyright bigwigs, too many people are simply failing to comprehend that a freely downloaded album or movie does not equate to a lost sale. In fact, in what I would say is most cases; someone who downloads something ‘illegally’ would not necessarily have gone out and paid full-whack for the product if that was their only option.

There is nothing the governments of the world can do to stop people sharing copyright material freely online. Instead, companies need to start offering alternatives to rival the convenience free downloads provide. Imagine this scenario – you want to watch a certain movie one night, or get some new music for a long drive. Do you travel to HMV, pay £12 for a CD or DVD (with most of that money going to anyone but the artist), order from Amazon and wait three days, or do you pop onto Pirate Bay and have it ready to go within the hour? Even iTunes makes the process of buying music far more difficult and inconvenient than it needs to be – locking your legitimately bought files to use with only their own products in Apple’s typically paranoid style.

The Pirate Bay is the most popular ‘BitTorrent’ site in the world – hosting millions of links to freely download any music, movie, video game or software you could ever hope for. Now one of the top 100 visited sites in the world, it is a glorious example of human freedom and sharing. So predictably, along came the High Court to attempt to block UK internet users from accessing the site by June. Exasperatingly, this is the kind of action they and the major label bosses still believe will actually curb piracy and revive the music industry. They are wrong, of course; the following day Pirate Bay revealed plans to change the way it operates to escape this ruling having any effect. 

Emerging from these recent debates is the idea that in this digital age we as consumers now hold the power – a few corporate bigwigs can no longer bully and control us into paying over the odds for a product the artist sees a minimal return from. Major music labels are rightly very worried, but their haphazard thought processes in combating piracy are only making things worse. 

Throughout society there remains a devastating ignorance on the subject of piracy, thanks largely to consumers being brainwashed by poor journalism such as the Metro’s on Monday. If more people can realise this, and not just assume that breaking copyright law is inherently ‘wrong’, we can speed up this shift in power. It is time to start celebrating freedom, sort out the messy legalities in a mature and reasonable way and stop the corporate bullies’ wallets growing ever fatter.

My favourite and least favourite PC games of 2011

Favourites - in no particular order

Batman: Arkham City - such a slick game, probably the most impressive of the year.

Battlefield 3 - the single player wasn't much more than a tech demo, but the multiplayer has improved well over Bad Company 2.

Dead Island - a real surprise package. Was it going to be a clone of Dead Rising (which I don't enjoy) or Left 4 Dead? Turns it out was a weird but fascinating blend of the two.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Did a good job of living up to the name. Just a shame it had to be consolified in many ways, otherwise it could have been amazing.

Driver: San Francisco - this is the game that got the biggest grin out of me this year. Solid, smooth and enjoyable with a very clever gameplay innovation in Shift.

LIMBO - this is the best indie game of the year, and probably the most intriguing I've ever played.

Portal 2 - Delightful entertainment.

Least favourite

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Quite possibly the most boring game I have ever played. All hell broke loose, and I yawned.

Crysis 2 - The game actually has fun multiplayer, and the single player has lots of positives, but I was devastated when I clocked on to the fact that you can stroll past all the enemies in cloak mode, even on hard difficulty. One of the worst flaws I've ever experienced in a game.

Homefront - A pointless, shameless game

Red Faction: Armageddon - Worst possible way to build on Guerrilla, swapping open-world for linear caves.

I have yet to play LA Noire and Saints Row The Third...